Ribbon reverse mechanism



p 1967 R. E. BUSCH RIBBON REVERSE MECHANISM E-Sheess-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 11, 1964 FIG.I

WVENTOR, RICHARD E. BUSCH he/L0 m mndal A TTOR NE Y5 INVENTOR RICHARD E. BUSCH Sept. 12, 1967 R. E. BUSCH RIBBON REVERSE MECHANISM Filed Aug. 11, 1964 BY Qhuaw Q W A 'I'TORNE Y5 Sept. 12, R BUSCH RIBBON REVERSE MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. 11, 1964 INVENTOR.

RICHARD E. BUSCH A 'I'TORNE Y5 United States Patent Delaware Filed Aug. 11, 1964, Ser. No. 388,898 3 Claims. (Cl. 197-165) The present invention relates in general to calculating machines of the cash registering type and more particularly to a mechanism for control of the ink ribbon utilized for printing in such machines, which mechanism is capable of automatically reversing the direction of movement of the ink ribbon upon depletion of the ribbon supply spool.

In most cash registering machines, a printing unit records each transaction introduced into the machine on a paper tape which is then available at the end of the transaction for use as a receipt. The printing on the paper strip is accomplished through use of an ink ribbon which is passed from one ribbon spool through the printing apparatus of the machine to a second take-up spool. With machines of the cash registering type, it is important for the sake of customer convenience that the operator of the machine not be required to service the ribbon during the course of a transaction.

It is therefore quite desirable that some means be provided in or adjacent to the printing mechanism of the cash registering machine for automatically reversing the direction of movement of the printing ribbon when the ribbon supply spool becomes depleted.

Automatic ribbon reverse mechanism are known; however, the mechanism of the prior art have been generally overly complicated and therefore subject to repeated failure or inaccurate operation. It has also been found that these prior art mechanisms tend to place a large force on the ink ribbon during the reversing operation because their operation is based for the most part on a positive switching of gears and levers directly associated with the driving means.

The present invention provides a ribbon reverse mechanism in which the elements actuated by the ribbon to effect reversal thereof are not connected directly to the driving power but rather form a control for a pair of clutch elements which selectively apply the driving power to one or the other ribbon spool. In this way a ribbon actuated mechanism is provided which requires a minimum force to effect reversal of the ribbon.

It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide a cash registering machine having a printing mechanism including an ink ribbon and a mechanism for automatically reversing the direction of movement of said ribbon when the ribbon supply spool becomes depleted.

It is a further object of the instant invention to provide a cash registering machine of the type described including a mechanism for automatically switching the driving power from one ribbon spool to the other ribbon spool in response to a depletion of ribbon on said one spool, wherein the switching is controlled by means isolated from said drive means.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a cash registering machine of the type described which is provided with an automatic ribbon reversing mechanism capable of selectively supplying driving power to one of the ribbon spools upon detection of ribbon depletion in the other spool, which mechanism is simple in construction, dependable in operation and requires a minimum force for actuation.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which shows, for purposes of illustration only, one embodiment in accordance with the present invention, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a detail View of the reciprocal ribbon control mechanism which forms part of the instant invention;

FIGURE 2 is a detail view of the clutch mechanism which cooperates with the mechanism of FIGURE 1 and forms the other part of the instant invention; and

FIGURE 3 is a detail view similar to FIGURE 1 with the elements shifted to their alternate positions.

Looking now to the figures of the drawing, wherein like reference numerals have been used to designate like parts, wherever possible, and more particularly to FIG- URE 1, a printing ribbon R is passed from one ribbon spool 1, through the printer (not shown) in an adjacent portion of the machine, and back to a second ribbon spool 2. The spools are alternately driven from a main drive shaft in a manner to be described in detail in connection with FIGURE 2.

Looking first to FIGURE 1, an eyelet controlled lever 18 is pivoted at 19 and carries at its extreme end a pair of fingers 17, which are spaced only slightly greater than the thickness of the printing ribbon and through which the printing ribbon is adapted to pass. The printing ribbon R is provided closely adjacent to each extreme end thereof with an eyelet or other projection 40 having a thickness somewhat larger than the spacing between the fingers 17 so that upon contact of the eyelet with the eyelet control lever 18, which occurs when the spool 2 is almost depleted, the lever 18 will be rotated by the ribbon R in a clockwise direction. The lever 18 is connected at 18a by an over-center spring 20* connected at 20a to a blocking lever 21 pivoted at 22 and provided with a blocking ear or pawl 23 engageable with the teeth on a notched disk 15 associated with the spool 2. The blocking lever 21 is also connected by way of link 24 to a similar blocking lever 25 pivoted at 29 and provided with a blocking ear or pawl 28 engageable with the teeth of a notched disk 30 associated with the spool '1. The blocking lever 25 in connected at 25a to one end of an over-center spring 34, the other end 34a of which is connected to a second eyelet control lever 26 pivoted at 35 and provided at its extreme end with a pair of fingers 36- similar to the fingers 17 on lever 18 and between which the printing ribbon R is adapted to pass to and from the spool 1.

FIGURE 2 shows a side view of the mechanism and particularly illustrates the means by which the mechanism of FIGURE 1 controls notched disks 15 and 30 which, in turn, control the application of driving power alternately to the spools 1 and 2, as more fully described below. A main drive shaft 31, which is indexed or driven a prescribed amount during each cycle of the machine in the well-known manner, carries a drive gear 32 which meshes with a gear 3-3 mounted on the end of jack shaft 4 and fixed thereto by pin 33a which passes through the shaft and the hub of gear 33'. Shaft 4 is journalled in a bearing 33b fixed to the frame member 330 of the machine. The jack shaft 4 carries a small gear 5 and a larger gear 6 mounted in spaced relationship upon the shaft. The gear 5 meshes with gears 7 and 7' on the two fixed spool supporting shafts 8 and 9, respectively, each such gear 7 and 7' being rotatably mounted on the shaft and provided with a hub 10 and 10', respectively, adapted to drive sleeves 11 and 11 mounted on the respective shafts adjacent thereto. The gear 6 on jack shaft 4 meshes with gears 13 and 13' rotatably mounted on hubs 14 and 14', which in turn are rotatably mounted on the sleeves 11 and 11, respectively, and in frictional driving engagement therewith through flange forming rings 42 and 42' fixed to the ends of hubs 14 and 14. Gears 13 and 13 are of smaller diameter than gears 7 and 7'. The notched disks 15 and 30 are also rortatably mounted on the hubs 14 and 14 of the respective shafts 8 and 9 and friction spring disks 16 and 16' are interposed between the gears 13 and 13 and the disks 15 and 30 on the shafts 8 and 9, respectively.

Springs 12 and 12 are tightly wound about the outer periphery of the hubs 10 and 10', the sleeves '11 and 11, and the hubs 14 and 14' on each of the shafts 8 and 9 in such a direction that rotation of the hubs 10 and 10' in the normal driving direction when either disc 15 or 30 on hubs 14 and 14 is blocked, as described above, will cause a tightening of the associated spring clutch and consequent rotation of the sleeve and hub as a unit. The sleeve 11 on shaft 8 is provided with a driving arm 39 which contacts a pin 27 mounted on the spool 2 such that rotation of the sleeve 11 will produce similar rotation of the spool 2. In a like manner the sleeve 11 on the shaft 9 is provided with a driving arm 37 which engages with a pin 38 so that rotation of the sleeve 11' about the shaft 9 will produce a consequent rotation of the spool 1.

It is apparent from the above description that the frictional engagement between discs 15 and 30 and their hubs 14 and 14' is such as to overcome the frictional engagement between gears 13 and 13' and the ring flanges 42 and 42 as determined by the relative surface contact between these elements and the pressure of spring discs 16 and 16, when either of the discs 15 or 30 is blocked by its associated blocking ear.

It should be apparent that the hubs, sleeves and spring clutch members along with the associated gears on shaft 8 provide an identical arrangement to that of the shaft 9 and each of these mechanisms meshes with the gears and 6 on the jack shaft 4, which provides the driving power from the main drive shaft 31. Such a use of similar parts in various portions of the mechanism and the provision of identical control units for each of the ribbon spools, provides for interchangeability of parts which considerably reduces the cost of manufacture of the device and provides for low-cost maintenance and overall simplicity of operation.

With the mechanism oriented as illustrated in FIGURE 1, power is applied to the shaft 9 assembly by way of main drive shaft 31, gears 32 and 33, and gears 5 and However, when the spool 2 becomes substantially depleted, the eyelet or other projection 40 placed near each extreme and of the ribbon R will catch in the aperture between the fingers 17 on eyelet control lever 18 forcing the lever in a clockwise direction. The lever 18 will then shift a position such as indicated in FIGURE 3. Since the spring 20 will be pulled to the other side of pivot 22, the blocking lever 21 will rotate in a clockwise direction until the blocking ear 23 engages with a tooth in the notched disk 15, thereby preventing further rotation of this disk.

At the same time, as blocking lever 21 is rotated clockwise, it rocks linkage 24 thereby rotating the blocking lever 25 in a counterclockwise direction away from the notched disk bringing the over-center spring 34 to the left of the pivot 29 thereby rotating the eyelet control lever 26 in a counterclockwise direction also. With notched disk 30 free to rotate and notched disk 15 6 on jack shaft 4 to drive spool 1 counterclockwise, as

shown by arrow A so as to effect, as seen by arrows G, a Winding of the ribbon upon spool 1 and an unwinding of the ribbon from spool 2 which is in an idle condition permitting it to rotate in a clockwise direction, as shown by the arrow B, as the ribbon unwinds therefrom. Notched wheel 15 and the other elements on shaft 8- except actuator 1-1are being driven in the opposite direction, as shown by arrow C.

These driving conditions are attained in the following manner. Disk 30 is blocked by blocking ear 28 thereby preventing rotation of hub 14 by gear 13' which merely rotates around the hub 14. The hub 10' is rotated by gear 7' and, since no relative rotation is applied to the clutch spring 12' by hub 14, the clutch spring 12 will tighten to drive sleeve 11' and hub 14 all at the same speed. Sleeve 11' drives spool 1 through the driving arm 37 and pin 38. Hub 14' will rotate relative to disk 30 and gear 13 but has no effect on either.

At the same time, disk 15 is free to rotate permitting hub '14 to be rotated by gear 13 at a higher speed than gear 7 is rotated by gear 5.

One end of the spring 12, that is, the end in contact with the hub 14, will therefore rotate at a greater speed than the end of the spring which contacts the hub 10 thereby producing a twisting of the spring which loosens the coils thereof and unlocks the sleeve 11 from the hub 10 breaking the driving power between these two members. With no driving power applied to the sleeve 11, the spool 2 will be in an idle condition.

blocked, the driving power will be shifted from the shaft 9 to the shaft 8 assembly thereby reversing the direction of the spools 1 and 2, as indicated by arrows D and E and the ribbon R, as shown by arrows G. Disk 15 is now still while disk 30 is rotating counterclockwise, as shown by arrow F so that it is wound upon the spool 2 from the spool 1.

In a like manner when spool 1 becomes depleted, an eyelet placed at the end of the ribbon will contact the projections 36 on the eyelet control lever 25 thereby rotating the lever 26 in a clockwise direction effecting a clockwise rotation of the blocking lever 25 until the blocking ear 28 contacts the teeth on the notched disk 30 thereby preventing its further rotation. At the same time, through link 24, the blocking lever 21 is rocked in a counterclockwise direction swinging the teeth on notched disk 15 from blocking car 23 and effecting a counterclockwise rotation of the eyelet control lever 18 to the position indicated in FIGURE 1. With the notched disk 30 blocked by the blocking ear 28 and the notched disk 15 free to rotate, power will be reapplied to the shaft 9 assembly and withdrawn from the shaft 8 assembly thereby effecting a winding of the ribbon R on the spool 1, which ribbon is then supplied from the spool 2.

In summary, it Will be understood that when disc 15 is blocked, as shown in FIG. 3, reel 2 will be conditioned to be driven by way of the spring clutch 12 driving sleeve 11 and the driving engagement of drive arm 39 with pin 27. At the same time, hub 14' is free to be driven faster than hub 10 and the driving engagement of spring clutch 12 with sleeve 11' is broken. Therefore, there will be no driving of reel 1 which will be in idle condition permitting the ribbon to feed freely from it to reel 2. The exact opposite condition will prevail when disc 30 is blocked and hub 14 is free to be rotated at a higher speed 10, as explained above.

In other words, when sleeve 11 is rotated, sleeve 11' is idle, and vice versa. Each sleeve is conditioned to be driven when its associated notched disc is prevented from being rotated by the ears 23 and 28, respectively.

It should therefore be apparent that the instant invention provides a ribbon reversing mechanism wherein a clutch mechanism is positioned between the main drive shaft 31 and each of the means controlled by levers 18 and 26 for alternately engaging one of said clutch mechanisms while inactivating the other.

As a result, the ribbon R does not directly actuate the clutch mechanisms but cooperates directly with an easily actuated over-center, spring-lever combination, which takes a minimum force to actuate and which performs the required reversing operation.

It should therefore be equally apparent that using these basic principles of the invention one may alter the structural form of the invention as specifically described and illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the instant invention.

I claim:

1. A ribbon reversing mechanism comprising:

(a) first and second shafts fixed in spaced apart relationship with each other;

(b) first and second ribbon spools mounted for rotation on said first and second shafts and to which the opposite ends of said ribbon are attached respectively;

(c) first and second spool actuating means rotatably mounted on said first and second shafts, respectively, for rotating said spools, each of said actuating means comprising:

(1) a sleeve around the shaft and extending longitudinally along its length;

(2) a hub on one end of said sleeve; and

(3) a spool drive means at the other end of said sleeve;

(d) rotatable drive urneans comprising:

( 1) a first hub rotatably carried on each of said shafts on one side of the hub end of said actuating means and being of the same outer diameter as said hub end;

(2) a second hub rotatably carried on each sleeve on the other side of said hub end of said actuator and being of the same outer diameter as the hub end;

(3) first hub driving means for rotating each of said first hubs at one speed; and

(4) second hub driving means for rotating each of said second hubs at a faster speed;

(e) first and second clutch means mounted on said first and second shafts, respectively, and each comprising:

(1) a coil spring tightly wound around all three of said hubs;

(f) projection means on each end of said ribbon; and

(g) blocking means responsive to said projection means for alternately counteracting each of said second hubs driving means;

(h) each of said clutch means in response to said blocking means being alternately ineffective to drive its associated actuating means when said second hub is rotating at the higher speed whereby its associated spool is in an idle condition, and effective to drive said associated actuating means when said blocking means is effective thereby to rotate the associated spool to wind ribbon thereupon from the idle spool.

2. A construction according to claim 1 wherein said blocking means comprises:

(a) a notched wheel rotatably mounted on each of said second hubs;

(b) means for effecting rotation of said notched disk at the same speed as said second hub when said notched disk is free to rotate;

(c) pawl means associated with each of said notched disks; and

(d) an over-center lever means responsive to movement of one of said projection means as it moves away from its spool to activiate one of said pawls into blocking engagement with one of said notched wheels and to move the other of said pawls away from blocking engagement with the other of said notched wheels.

3. A reversing mechanism according to claim 2 wherein each of said pawl means comprises:

(a) a third lever pivotally mounted intermediate its ends; and

(b) a pawl carried on one free end; and wherein said over-center lever means comprises:

(c) a first pivoted lever having its free end in the path of the projection means on one end of the ribbon;

(d) a second pivoted lever having its free end in the path of projection means on the other end of the ribbon;

(e) an over-center spring connecting the other free end of each of said pawl carrying third levers to one of said pivoted levers intermediate their free and pivoted ends; and

(f) link means interconnecting said pawl carrying ends of said third levers; whereby (g) movement of the free end of one of said first or second levers by said projection means moves the pivotal connection of said over-center spring with said first or second lever over-center relative to the pivot point of a said third lever thereby to move its pawl into blocking engagement with the associated notched wheel and the other pawl out of blocking engagement with its notched wheel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,105,081 7/1914 Karlberg et al. 197-160 2,069,277 2/1937 Sacerdote 197153 2,617,513 1'1/1952 Bahlen et a1. 197-165 2,889,909 6/ 1959 Rehurek 197--165 3,038,582 6/1962 Frechette et a1 197160 3,184,027 5/1965 Howard 197-160 3,185,083 5/ 1965 Pensavecchia 19716S X ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner.

E. T. WRIGHT, Assistant Examiner, 

1. A RIBBON REVERSING MECHANISM COMPRISING: (A) FIRST AND SECOND SHAFTS FIXED IN SPACED APART RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER; (B) FIRST AND SECOND RIBBON SPOOLS MOUNTED FOR ROTATION ON SAID FIRST AND SECOND SHAFTS AND TO WHICH THE OPPOSITE ENDS OF SAID RIBBON ARE ATTACHED RESPECTIVELY; (C) FIRST AND SECOND SPOOL ACTUATING MEANS ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID FIRST AND SECOND SHAFTS, RESPECTIVELY, FOR ROTATING SAID SPOOLS, EACH OF SAID ACTUATING MEANS COMPRISING: (1) A SLEEVE AROUND THE SHAFT AND EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY ALONG ITS LENGTH; (2) A HUB ON ONE END OF SAID SLEEVE; AND (3) A SPOOL DRIVE MEANS AT THE OTHER END OF SAID SLEEVE; (D) ROTATABLE DRIVE MEANS COMPRISING: (1) A FIRST HUB ROTATABLY CARRIED ON EACH OF SAID SHAFTS ON ONE SIDE OF THE HUB END OF SAID ACTUATING MEANS AND BEING OF THE SAME OUTER DIAMETER AS SAID HUB END; (2) A SECOND HUB ROTATABLY CARRIED ON EACH SLEEVE ON THE OTHER HUB ROTATABLY CARRIED ON EACH SLEEVE ACTUATOR AND BEING OF THE SAME OUTER DIAMETER AS THE HUB END; (3) FIRST HUB DRIVING MEANS FOR ROTATING EACH OF SAID FIRST HUBS AT ONE SPEED; AND (4) SECOND HUB DRIVING MEANS FOR ROTATING EACH OF SAID SECOND HUBS AT A FASTENER SPEED; 